General news

• England women’s grand slam dreams shattered by France in Six Nations

  10-03-2018 23:28 via theguardian.com
  • France 18-17 England
  • Last-minute try by full-back Jessy Tremouliere seals France winEngland’s dreams of a second successive grand slam were shattered at Stade des Alpes last night. The team, led again by Sarah Hunter, can still win the Six Nations title in Coventry on Friday night but France secured victory with a last-minute try by their outstanding full-back Jessy Tremouliere.The crowd of 17,434 in Grenoble was a record for the women’s Six Nations and England, who had
  
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• Brave Rhian Brewster gave Uefa a kick up the backside

  10-03-2018 23:22 via theguardian.com
  One way or another, the 17-year-old’s stand did prompt Uefa to investigate properly the claims that Spartak Moscow’s Leonid Mironov racially abused the Liverpool youth playerIt seemed to get lost, amid the news from Uefa that one of the players accused of racially abusing Rhian Brewster would not face any disciplinary sanctions, that we might have seen the first evidence over the last few days that it is possible for a boy of 17 to persuade the people at the top of football that some
  
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• Troy: Fall of a City recap – series one, episode four: The Spoils of War

  10-03-2018 23:00 via theguardian.com
  The stakes were finally raised following the sacking of Cilicia, while Paris faced off against Menelaus in an omen-heavy episodeNot only did I not hate this episode, I actually rather enjoyed it. It helped that there was a real sense of something at stake following the sacking of Cilicia, while the final moments, in which Paris faced off against Menelaus, were both tense and – following Litos’s intervention – enjoyably menacing. Continue reading...
  
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• Rohingya’s teens seek counselling to cope with Myanmar brutality

  10-03-2018 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Young male refugees in Bangladesh are being helped by pioneering aid efforts that try to address the hidden scars of warMemories of the day in October that changed the life of teenager Mohammed Riaz for ever come in vivid flashbacks, when it’s dark and quiet.State forces arrived in his village in the Buthidaung township of Myanmar. Officers entered the family home, raped and killed his two elder sisters and shot his brother dead. Continue reading...
  
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• Millions of families on brink face deepest benefit cuts in years

  10-03-2018 23:00
  Chancellor Philip Hammond prepares to deliver a speech to trainee bankers in London yesterday.The public spending squeeze is set to tighten soon, with a range of cuts again targeting family benefits.Chancellor Philip Hammond is preparing to give a stripped-down spring statement on Tuesday, where he is expected to boast of lower than expected borrowing figures.
  
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• Sikh Student 'Told To Leave Rush Late Bar In Mansfield Because Of Turban'

  10-03-2018 22:50
  A Sikh student has said he is “heartbroken” after being asked to leave a bar in Mansfield because he was wearing a turban.Amrik Singh said he was told on Friday night that he was not allowed to stay in Rush Late Bar, in Nottinghamshire, because he refused to remove his religious headware.The bar released a statement on Saturday saying the door supervisor involved had been suspended and a thorough investigation launched.
  
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• Salisbury spy poisoning: Police identify 240 witnesses and examine 200 pieces of evidence

  10-03-2018 22:11
  Police have identified more than 240 witnesses and are examining more than 200 pieces of evidence as they investigate the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are in a critical condition in hospital after being attacked with a nerve agent in the cathedral city on Sunday.Detective sergeant Nick Bailey, who fell ill while trying to help the pair, is in a serious condition but has been able to talk to those visiting him in hospital.
  
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• The woman who rode Australia's longest trekking route – a photo essay

  10-03-2018 22:02 via theguardian.com
  Alienor Le Gouvello travelled more than 5,000km with three wild horses and a dog. For her forthcoming book Wild at Heart, photographer Cat Vinton joined her for part of the journey to capture the beauty and isolation of a year-long trek through the Australian bushContinue reading...
  
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• If the case against Russia is proved, charge Putin with the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal

  10-03-2018 22:01
  The attempted murder of Sergei Skripal has shed uncomfortable light on Britain’s vulnerability to foreign threats, some potentially emanating from foreign governments, against its sovereignty, security, citizens’ safety and laws.It suggests respect for Britain, its values and its law enforcement capabilities is so diminished that it is seen as an easy venue for score-settling.In 1850 Lord Palmerston, then foreign secretary, stood before the House of Commons and enunciated the princip
  
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• Tracy Beaker is back … as a single mum fighting to make ends meet

  10-03-2018 22:00 via theguardian.com
  Jacqueline Wilson shot to fame 27 years ago with the story of a girl in a care home. She talks about her new book on the now grown-up heroineIt has been 27 years since Jacqueline Wilson, then a little-known children’s author, got together with Nick Sharratt, a young illustrator, and conceived one of the most outrageous characters in children’s literature: Tracy Beaker, the feistiest, funniest 10-year-old ever raised in the dumping ground of a care home.Now Tracy is back, in a new ill
  
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• Labour pledges no purge of staff after bitter battle to fill top party post

  10-03-2018 22:00
  Jennie Formby is the frontrunner for the post of general secretary of the Labour party.Allies of Jeremy Corbyn’s preferred candidate to run the Labour party are attempting to calm concerns that her arrival will see a “clearout” of staff deemed insufficiently supportive of the Labour leader.Senior backers of Jennie Formby, the Unite union’s former political director and the frontrunner to become Labour’s new general secretary, are trying to reassure party staff that
  
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• Top-paid men outstrip women by 4 to 1, shock figures reveal

  10-03-2018 21:59
  Findings provoked immediate concern from former Tory cabinet minister for women Justine Greening.There are almost four times more men than women in Britain’s highest paid posts, according to “scandalous” figures that show the extent of the glass ceiling blocking women from top jobs.Government data reveals the huge disparity in the number of men and women with a six-figure income, fuelling concerns over the gender pay gap in the City and other professions.
  
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• North Korea talks: Trump praises own role but Washington frets over details

  10-03-2018 21:57 via theguardian.com
  The announcement of a Trump-Kim summit caught the administration off guard, and officials are scrambling to roll out a policy frameworkDonald Trump’s sudden acceptance of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has cast a cloud of uncertainty over Washington, with few details emerging over the terms of a potentially historic meeting that is fraught with risk.Related: Republican candidate's North Korea experience may not be all he claimsContinue reading...
  
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• Elizabeth Hurley says nephew lost four pints of blood in knife attack

  10-03-2018 21:32 via theguardian.com
  Miles Hurley, 21, is in hospital after being repeatedly stabbed in south-west LondonElizabeth Hurley has said her nephew lost more than four pints of blood after being repeatedly stabbed in a mob attack. The actor branded the four men who stabbed her 21-year-old nephew, Miles Hurley, on Thursday as “animals” and hoped they will be caught before they hurt or even kill someone.Continue reading...
  
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• West Ham Match Against Burnley Descends Into Chaos As Fans Storm Pitch, Police Investigating

  10-03-2018 21:27
  Police are investigating allegations of assault after a Premier League football match descended into chaos on Saturday when fans stormed the pitch.The Football Association has “strongly condemned” the crowd disturbances during West Ham’s match against Burnley this afternoon.During the match, which the Hammers lost 3-0, about 200 supporters gathered around the director’s box, hurling abuse at West Ham co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan.
  
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• Crewe excluded from regional awards for handling of Barry Bennell scandal

  10-03-2018 21:01 via theguardian.com
  • League Two club to be barred from Northwest Football Awards
  • Crewe council prepares to pass motion against AlexandraCrewe Alexandra are to be banished from the Northwest Football Awards because of their handling of the Barry Bennell sex-abuse scandal and are facing the embarrassment of a motion being passed against the club by their own town council, the Observer can reveal. Related: Barry Bennell branded ‘sheer evil’ as he is sentenced to 30 yearsContinue reading...
  
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• Glasgow’s oldest street will be desecrated, its built heritage disfigured | Kevin McKenna

  10-03-2018 20:39 via theguardian.com
  In Glasgow’s High Street, history is being forced to make way for unlovely and intrusive blocks of student flatsOne by one the lights are going out on the most historic street in Glasgow. The High Street slopes down through the city in an arc from north to south, taking in the medieval grandeur of Glasgow Cathedral and some of the best preserved examples of Victorian red sandstone tenements in the UK.The oldest pub in Glasgow is there too (though not for much longer) and behind it a phalan
  
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• ‘Astonished’ MPs told £817m has gone unspent in housing budget

  10-03-2018 20:35
  Philip Hammond is under pressure to allocate more funding for local government in his statement this week.MPs are demanding an urgent explanation from ministers after being told that £817m allocated for desperately needed affordable housing and other projects in cash-strapped local authorities has been returned to the Treasury unspent.The surrender of the unused cash has astonished members of the cross-party housing, communities and local government select committee at a time when Theresa
  
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• Tomi Adeyemi: ‘We need a black girl fantasy book every month’

  10-03-2018 20:34 via theguardian.com
  Author of Children of Blood and Bone says her debut novel was a response to genre fiction in which the characters were always whiteIt has been called the biggest fantasy debut novel of 2018, drawing comparisons with everything from Game of Thrones to Black Panther, and has netted a movie deal reported to be worth seven figures.But Tomi Adeyemi, the 24-year-old Nigerian-American author of Children of Blood and Bone, says that such success was the last thing on her mind when she sat down to write
  
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• Counter-terror police investigate 'Punish a Muslim Day' letters received across UK

  10-03-2018 20:27
  Threatening letters calling for a "Punish a Muslim Day" on 3 April are being investigated by counter-terror police.Muslims in London, Yorkshire and the Midlands have reported receiving the letter that calls for attacks in a points-scoring system.West Yorkshire Police confirmed it had received six reports related to the letters.
  
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• Campaigners: Nazanin still in jail in Iran 'due to financial dispute'

  10-03-2018 20:10
  Campaigners: Nazanin still in jail in Iran 'due to financial dispute'
  
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• Uninspired England’s title hopes ended in scrappy defeat by France

  10-03-2018 20:05 via theguardian.com
  • France 22-16 England
  • Penalty try conceded by Anthony Watson tilts contest to the FrenchEngland should seek sponsorship from the RAC. Their title challenge broke down in the French capital, their chariot not so much swinging low as missing a wheel and a couple of cylinders. They secured a bonus point, as they had needed to in order to at least delay Ireland’s coronation, but lacked the breakdown cover to supply the win they required with it.England had to win and score four tr
  
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• Ugly scenes as pitch invasions halt West Ham defeat to Burnley

  10-03-2018 19:50
  West Ham United has called an emergency meeting after several pitch invasions and crowd protests interrupted the club's 3-0 defeat to Burnley at the London Stadium on Saturday.After a goalless first half, Burnley took the lead through Ashley Barnes in the 66th minute - prompting a number of supporters to invade the pitch and approach West Ham players.Two more fans then encroached the pitch and were led away by Hammers defender James Collins.
  
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• An incredibly rare ‘horseshoe cloud’ was spotted in Nevada and it kept the meme-makers busy

  10-03-2018 19:42
  ‘Omg god’s mustache fell off’.
  
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• Ireland crowned Six Nations champions and set up grand slam shot in England

  10-03-2018 19:33 via theguardian.com
  • Ireland win title after beating Scotland after England lose in Paris
  • Irish victory at Twickenham next Saturday would seal Grand SlamIreland have won the Six Nations championship after England lost 22-16 to France in Paris and will have the chance to complete their third grand slam at Twickenham on Saturday.Joe Schmidt’s side had moved to within touching distance of their first title since 2015 by beating Scotland 28-8 in Dublin. Jacob Stockdale ran in two tries as Ireland end
  
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• UK police identify over 200 witnesses in nerve agent attack - minister

  10-03-2018 19:31
  British police have identified more than 200 witnesses and are looking at more than 240 pieces of evidence in their investigation into a nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter, interior minister Amber Rudd said on Saturday.Former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, have been in hospital in a critical condition since Sunday, when they were found unconscious on a bench in the southern English cathedral city of Salisbury."The two victims remain in hospital
  
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• Sergei Skripal: Russia links attempted murder to deaths of Kremlin enemies

  10-03-2018 19:29
  Members of the emergency services in protective coveralls load a covered ambulance on to a military low-loader at Salisbury district hospital.Russia stepped up its war of words with Britain on Saturday as its embassy in London linked the attempted murder of double agent Sergei Skripal to the deaths of three exiled enemies of the Kremlin.The provocative move came as the home secretary, Amber Rudd, chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee into how the investigation into the attack on Skr
  
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• 'What is going on?': Boris Johnson challenged to secure Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release from Iranian jail

  10-03-2018 19:25
  Richard Ratcliffe and supporters from the Free Nazanin campaign staged a demonstration in Whitehall on Saturday, during which hundreds of pebbles were painted to mark each day the mother-of-one has spent behind bars.The protest was targeted at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who promised to leave "no stone unturned" in securing Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release.The British-Iranian dual citizen, who will spend her second Mother's Day in an Iranian prison on Sunday, is serving a five-year sentence
  
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• Police officer tries to stop Birmingham ram-raid

  10-03-2018 19:23 via bbc.co.uk
  The gang used a white flat-bed lorry to smash the front window of a jeweller in Birmingham.
  
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• Picasso’s muse draws in the crowds at Tate blockbuster

  10-03-2018 19:20 via theguardian.com
  Exhibition focuses on artist’s many portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter in a pivotal year in his lifeIn 1932, Pablo Picasso spent the early days of March producing some of his most fevered images of lust and love. He was playing with shape and colour too, but at the centre of it all was the face – and the twining, pale body – of Marie-Thérèse Walter, his new, 22-year-old lover.On Saturday Tate Modern opened its doors for the first weekend of what promi
  
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• Bono’s anti-poverty One Campaign faces claims of harassment

  10-03-2018 19:08 via theguardian.com
  Former employees at musician’s One Campaign allege they were ‘treated worse than dogs’The anti-poverty campaign co-founded by Bono is being threatened with legal action by former employees who say they were bullied by a senior official for almost four years and that their complaints were not dealt with properly.The One Campaign, created in 2004 to fight extreme poverty and preventable diseases, launched an investigation after a group of former employees from its Johannesburg of
  
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• Don’t look to Len McCluskey and his sorry ilk to defend workers’ interests | Nick Cohen

  10-03-2018 19:01 via theguardian.com
  Never have our trade unions been so feeble, a reflection of their leaders’ contempt for their membersWe ought to be living in a stirring age of worker resistance. About four-fifths of the population think stronger trade unions are needed to shift the balance of power in the workplace. The settled opinion of the nation is that managers and rentiers are pocketing undeserved riches while millions live on low pay and at the mercy of their whims.All politics is underlaid by the hard fact that w
  
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• The car’s the scar: photographs of US veterans’ interior lives

  10-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  ML Casteel’s images of the clutter in ex-servicemen’s vehicles offer a powerful metaphor for the enduring psychological impact of warfare“When I was growing up in south-west Virginia, it was ingrained in me to thank a veteran if I met one,” says Matthew Casteel, a 37-year-old photographer who works under the name ML Casteel. “That was the norm back then, the understanding that they had made a huge sacrifice for the country. Somewhere along the way, that has changed.
  
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• Blake Morrison: ‘You must write a memoir as if you’re writing a novel’

  10-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  The author of And When Did You Last See Your Father? on his new novel, the story of a literary executorBlake Morrison is an award-winning poet, novelist, journalist and librettist, and a professor of creative and life writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is best known for his acclaimed memoir, And When Did You Last See Your Father?, which was made into a film starring Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson and Colin Firth, and for his study of the murder of James Bulger, As If. His novel The
  
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• Scottish Labour leader pledges radical economic reforms

  10-03-2018 18:57
  Richard Leonard accused the Scottish National party of complacency over economic insecurity experienced by ordinary people.The new leader of Scottish Labour, Richard Leonard, has set out a radical programme of redistributive taxation, along with pledges to return Scotland’s railways to public ownership, protect tenants against soaring rents, and to go into the next Holyrood election promising not to sign any new private finance deals.Leonard accused the Scottish National party of complacen
  
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• Russian ex-spy, daughter still critical after nerve agent attack - UK minister

  10-03-2018 18:54
  Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in hospital in a critical but stable condition after they were poisoned with a nerve agent, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on Saturday.Nick Bailey, a police officer who fell ill after being part of the early response to the attack, remains seriously ill but is talking and engaging with his family, Rudd said after chairing a meeting of the government's Cobra security committee.Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench
  
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• West Ham chaos as pitch invaders and crowd trouble mars Burnley’s win

  10-03-2018 18:22 via theguardian.com
  West Ham United are facing an investigation by the Football Association after their defeat by Burnley was marred by ugly scenes on and off the pitch as stewards at the London Stadium failed to stop supporters from mounting furious protests against the board.A match that was supposed to be remembered for the 25th anniversary of Bobby Moore’s death turned into one of chaos and farce as the London Stadium’s security failings were exposed again by hundreds of fans gathering in front of t
  
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• Just a bunch of people imagining what life would be like with a futuristic body upgrades

  10-03-2018 18:17
  If you were offered a hi-tech upgrade to your human body, what would you pick?
  
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• Sergei Skripal Poisoning: More Than 240 Witnesses Identified In 'Substantial' Investigation

  10-03-2018 18:02
  The Home Secretary has revealed the scale of the counter terrorism investigation into the Russian spy poisoning, identifying more than 240 witnesses and 200 pieces of evidence.Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in a “critical” condition, Amber Rudd said on Saturday, while Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who is still “seriously ill” after being first on the scene following the attack, has said he “does not consider himself a hero”.Rudd chaired a
  
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• Sergei Skripal Poisoning: Military Still In Salisbury As Objects Removed From City

  10-03-2018 18:02
  The military convoy, which includes two Army low-loaders, arrived at an ambulance station close to Salisbury District Hospital.Soldiers wearing grey hazmat suits and masks covered a potentially contaminated ambulance with a silver tarpaulin as they prepared to move it from the scene.Home Secretary Amber Rudd is chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra committee this afternoon to receive updates on the police inquiry.
  
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• Just when the baby boomer is loving the empty nest, here’s the boomerang child... | Yvonne Roberts

  10-03-2018 18:01 via theguardian.com
  For parents who have been enjoying the freedom of living child-free, now comes research to spoil it allThe bedrooms have been redecorated in grown-up colours, the 25-year-old soft toys chucked out, the washing machine is blissfully underused and, thanks to the apparent current raging addictions of baby boomers, a holiday or two – cruising in the Med, the Antarctic, anywhere that avoids dry land – have been booked. And then they’re back.According to a recent study by the London
  
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• Was Annihilation too brainy for the box office?

  10-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Alex Garland’s follow-up to Ex Machina was hotly anticipated, yet it’s gone direct to Netflix. Why?Tonight, at the stroke of midnight, one of the year’s best films will be readily, quietly available to pyjama-clad night owls at home – while over in the US, it is still screening to admittedly sparse crowds in multiplexes. Feverishly awaited by cinephiles and sci-fi geeks alike, Alex Garland’s Annihilation was not supposed to be a direct-to-Netflix release internation
  
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• Michael Caine: ‘Boy, did we have fun…’

  10-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  As his documentary about the 1960s opens, the veteran actor talks working-class culture, Woody Allen and why he never liked drugsNow 84, Michael Caine has appeared in 127 films, including Zulu, Alfie and The Italian Job, and been Oscar-nominated six times, winning twice. Caine is the narrator, co-producer and star of new documentary film My Generation, about his journey through 1960s London.What inspired you to make My Generation?
  Simon Fuller [Spice Girls/Pop Idol svengali] and I are frien
  
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• Does blockchain offer hype or hope?

  10-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  For many tech insiders, the most exciting thing about bitcoin is the thing that allows it to function: blockchain. What is it and what other uses might it have?These days, bitcoin is front-page news, as its price’s vertiginous ups and downs elicit glee and despondency by turns among investors. It was not always this way: the now-definitely-in-a-bubble cryptocurrency is making a comeback following years in which its association with crime and darknet drug markets kept it away from the spotl
  
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• Salisbury spy poisoning: Fears and nervousness in city rocked by double agent attack

  10-03-2018 17:46
  Cheryl Rose, who lives in Salisbury, told Sky News: "For me it is not knowing what's going on really.Various sites in Salisbury are still cordoned off, including the Zizzi restaurant, the Mill pub and an area around the Maltings shopping centre where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed.Along the cobbled streets are a mixture of police "road closed" signs and "open for business"" chalkboards.
  
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• Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: question over delay in return of jailed British-Iranian

  10-03-2018 17:46 via theguardian.com
  Richard Ratcliffe asks foreign secretary why his wife is not back in UK after he received positive messages from Iran The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual citizen jailed in Iran for spying, has called on the foreign secretary to explain why she has not returned to Britain. Richard Ratcliffe said it was not clear what was delaying a return to the UK for his wife, who was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to five years in jail, after the head of the prison where she was
  
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• Russian spy: Poisoning poses major challenge for MI6

  10-03-2018 17:18 via bbc.co.uk
  The BBC's Gordon Corera considers possible motives for the attempted murder of ex-spy Sergei Skripal.
  
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• Police investigate possible hate crime over anti-Islam letters

  10-03-2018 17:15 via theguardian.com
  West Yorkshire police confirm reports of letters advertising ‘Punish a Muslim Day’ Police are investigating a possible hate crime after reports that anti-Islam letters were posted across the country. West Yorkshire police confirmed they had received about six reports of letters advertising “Punish a Muslim Day”.Continue reading...
  
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• Is it still worth trying to come to America as an asylum seeker? I don't think so | Luis Mancheno

  10-03-2018 17:01 via theguardian.com
  I am a refugee living in the United States and I know what it means to escape death. Still, I warn others not to come – they won’t be safe or welcome here
  Don’t come here. If you are afraid for your life and you have no place to go, don’t pick this country. It is not safe for you here any more.If you try to cross our borders, people in military uniform called border patrol agents, will arrest you, throw you in a freezing cage and subject you to all kinds of abuses. These
  
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• The war over steel: Trump tips global trade into new turmoil

  10-03-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  The EU does not want the president’s tariffs to create a spiral of retaliation. But Europe is a target – and a battle looks inevitableBlast furnace B will fire up this summer in Granite City, Illinois, giving up to 500 steel workers a job and offering President Donald Trump a fitting emblem for his campaign to put America first. Mothballed for several years by US Steel, the blast furnace sits next to the Missouri river, north of St Louis, where it will smelt iron made newly competiti
  
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